The present invention concerns networking in general, and to a method and apparatus to monitor non-operating or free channels in a wireless communication system to determine which of those channels would be available to a wireless network.
Channel management by a wireless access point (AP) is brought about in part by a need to detect legacy systems across multiple channels. An AP, such as, for example, an AP that is part of a 802.11 network (that is, a network that supports an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 Standard), may coordinate with one or more stations (MD's) to have the one or more MD's monitor a non-operating channels in a wireless communication system. Typically, the MD disappears from the network for a set period of time after which it transmits a monitoring report to the AP that allows the AP to determine whether alternative channels are available to the network. In the alternative, the AP itself may disappear from the network for the set period of time in order to fulfill such monitoring function. However, the current monitoring schemes disadvantageously eradicate wireless operation during the monitoring time periods, in this way compromising network performance and increasing the possibility of dropped connections.